"I am happy that the University KIP has been able to help 900,000 beneficiaries. This is a very big leap," he remarked while opening the 3rd Vocationfest and Kampus Merdeka Festival in Jakarta.
He said that those beneficiaries were students studying off-campus through the Kampus Merdeka Program.
The program aims to give students more freedom and flexibility to choose subjects that suit their needs and interests.
Since 2021, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology has been organizing the University KIP program as social assistance, which is a development of the Bidikmisi program that the government launched in 2011.
The program aims to increase access to and learning opportunities in higher education for economically disadvantaged people.
The ministry outlines four categories for University KIP beneficiaries, according to its website.
First, they must graduate from high school, vocational school, or equivalent in the current year or the two previous years and have previously received the KIP scholarship.
Second, students that come from poor or vulnerable families, as proven by being registered in the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) as participants in the Family Hope Program (PKH) and having a Social Welfare Card (KKS) from the Ministry of Social Affairs, or residents of social institutions or orphanages.
Third, students as victims in natural disaster areas, conflict areas, and areas that have other specialties.
Fourth, students who face barriers to access, such as students with disabilities and students from underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost areas (3T).
"Higher education scholarships have been disbursed to 7,400 participants for students from 3T areas. This is a high number," Jokowi remarked.
Statistically, the number of registrants for University KIP continued to increase. Some 689,000 registrants were recorded in 2020, and the figure increased to 840,000 students in 2021.
In 2022, the number grew to 941,000 registrants, and as of August 3, 2023, there were 946,000 registrants for the program.
Tengku Nabila, one of the University KIP beneficiaries, stated that the knowledge gained from the Kampus Merdeka Program was used to teach children at other schools.
"University students need to be closer to school students and their environment," Nabila stated.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Anton Santoso
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